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Skating Left to Right Across Your Radio Dial

Tonight’s movie was Red Army. It’s the story of the Soviet Union’s Hockey program, and in some ways the Soviet Union, as told via the career of Slava Fetisov. There were so many pieces of this to like that it came together as a tremendous whole. From the animations of the propaganda posters in the beginning to Hockey highlights that reproduced the excitement for non-hockey fans, I thought this documentary was put together very well (despite on-line grumblings to the contrary).

Fetisov’s career is central to Russian hockey almost from its beginnings – post-Stalin to the present. For once, I’ll not give away the “surprise ending,” unless of course I just did.

I’ll just say – it was fascinating take on the Cold War through the eyes of a man who seems puzzled by what the interviewer even means by Cold War.

3 thoughts on “Skating Left to Right Across Your Radio Dial”

Some visitors have come here looking to have the meaning of the phrase “Skating left to right across your radio dial” explained and my entry doesn’t explain it at all. So allow me to explain.

When I was in college, we had a decent hockey team. In the dorms students would frequently listen to all the away games on the radio, where they were called by a fellow student (fwiw, this guy). The title phrase was used to immerse the listener into the experience of “being there” despite having only the audio component of the game.

Richy didn’t invent the phrase. It was used by other announcers before him and since, as well as for sports other than ice hockey. Nevertheless, I clearly remember hearing the phrase spoken while staring at an oversized, 80s boombox. I could almost feel the chill coming off that distant ice.